Why the UK's Handover of Chagos Islands to Mauritius is Proving to be Controversial
Although the deal includes resettlement efforts and financial commitments to Mauritius’ economy, the British government will continue to control the most developed part of Chagos Islands.
Mixed reactions have followed the news that the British government is handing over sovereignty of Chagos Islands to Mauritius after years of negotiation. Curiously, there’s dissatisfaction from two of the three sides involved: descendants of those who lived on the Islands, who say they were excluded from the process entirely; and several British citizens who are unhappy that their government has relinquished control over its now-former territory.
Between 1965 and 1973, British authorities forcefully removed hundreds of locals living in Chagos Islands, many of whom were descendants of slaves from neighboring French and Portuguese colonies of Madagascar and Mozambique who were forced to work on coconut plantations. And now some of their descendants are voicing their dissatisfaction about the recent developments.
Pascalina Nellan, whose grandmother was born in one of the islands, told the BBC that the deal amounted to "backstabbing" by the U.K. government. For years, the Chagossian community in the U.K. has protested and gone to court in order to win the right to return to the Islands where they and their forebears were evicted from. “We remain powerless and voiceless in determining our own future,” Frankie Bontemps, a second generation Chagossian in the U.K. said. In 2016, the U.K.’s Supreme Court ruled that those exiled could not return. However, the community kept campaigning.
Sovereignty of Chagos Islands, an archipelago of over 60 small islands in the Indian Ocean, has been disputed for decades. After being initially colonized by the French throughout the 18th century, the 1814 Treaty of Paris handed control of Mauritius and the islands to the British, which continued an administrative trend of treating both Mauritius and Chagos Islands somewhat as a single entity.
When Mauritius began its push for independence in the mid-1960s, the U.K. agreed on the condition that it would retain control of the islands, and went on to create the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT). Mauritius, an island country about 1,300 miles away from Chagos Islands, had repeatedly stated that it relinquished sovereignty of the islands under duress and did not recognize the BIOT.
British control of Chagos Islands had been slammed as illegal. The U.K. government shunned an advisory by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) about its unlawful separation of the islands from Mauritius, as well as a United Nations General Assembly vote that again confirmed the ICJ’s advisory.
After Chagossians were removed from the islands, they were resettled in Mauritius and Seychelles, and those born on the islands, as well as their descendants, can now apply for British citizenship. The removal was reportedly in acquiescence to the U.S. government, who had leased Diego Garcia, the largest island on the archipelago, to build a strategic naval base in the Indian Ocean. Diego Garcia has since been off limits to non-authorized personnel.
The possibility of many Chagossians returning to their native land is complicated by a apart of the deal which says that the U.S. naval base will remain in Diego Garcia for an initial 99 years — subject to future renewal or extension. “The agreement says it will address the wrongs against the Chagossians of the past but it looks like it will continue the crimes long into the future,” Clive Baldwin, senior legal adviser at Human Rights Watch, told The Guardian, adding that the deal “appears to explicitly ban [Chagossians] from the largest island, Diego Garcia, for another century.”
Amidst uncertainty about whether they will be able to live in Diego Garcia for the next century, as well as the conditions of the other islands that have been uninhabited for decades, some Chagossians are more open to the transfer of sovereignty to Mauritius. Olivier Bancoult, Chagos Refugee Group leader, who was four years old when his family was deported to Mauritius, welcomed it and described it as “a big day.” Bancoult said, “This has been a long struggle lasting more than 40 years and many of our people have passed away. But today is a sign of recognition of the injustice done against Chagossians who were forced to leave their homes.”